Porky in Wackyland
Porky in Wackyland is a 1938 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. Plot A newspaper shows Porky traveling to Africa to hunt the rare dodo bird, worth four sextillion dollars. Porky uses his airplane to go to Dark Africa, then Darker Africa, and finally lands in Darkest Africa. When Porky lands, a sign tells him that he's in Wackyland ("Population: 100 nuts and a squirrel"), while a voice booms out "It can happen here!" Porky tiptoes along the ground in his airplane and he is greeted by a roaring beast, who suddenly becomes effeminate and dances away into the forest. He watches as the sun is lifted above the horizon by a tower of stacked creatures. Nearby, another creature rises out of a tall flower, playing "The William Tell Overture", using his nose as a flute. The creature launches into a wild drum solo, plays a tiny piano, and plays its nose like a horn, which brings out a group of odd creatures, including a rabbit dangling in midair from a swing that seems to be threaded through its own ears, a small creature wearing large female mannequin legs who encourages the rabbit to swing faster, a peacock with a fantail of cards, an upside-down creature walking with giant bare feet in his hands, a goofy looking creature wearing large glasses in a small pot, a round creature with long legs on its sides, and an angry criminal imprisoned behind a free-floating barred window that he holds in his hands while a small policeman on a wheel appears and hits him on the head with a large stick. As Porky tries to find the do-do, he comes across a duck singing "Mammy!", a horn-headed creature, a conjoined cat and dog hybrid creature spinning around like a tornado while they fight, and a three-headed stooge whose heads argue and fight amongst themselves, but temporally stop their fight to tell the viewers that their mother was scared by a pawnbroker's sign, while a small creature with a light bulb on its head translates their gibberish speech. Finally, the Dodo appears. Porky tries to catch it, but it plays tricks on him. The dodo pulls out a pencil and draws a door in mid-air, and instead of opening it and running through, reaches down and lifts up the bottom edge of the door like a curtain, darts underneath and lets it snap back into place for Porky to bump into. At another point, the dodo appears on the Warner Bros. shield logo and slingshots Porky into the ground. Afterwards, the dodo pulls a wall of bricks in the picture and lets him crash into it. Eventually, Porky triumphs when he disguises himself as a bearded paperboy, shouting "Extra! Extra! Porky captures Dodo!" before hitting the bird with a mallet. Porky loudly proclaims to the audience that he has captured the last dodo. The dodo mockingly replies, "Yes, I'm really the last of the dodos. Ain't I, fellas?" A multitude of dodos appear, all yelling out, "Yeah, man!". Then all of the dodos howl. Porky covers his ears at that. Then the Dodo kicks Porky and stands on his head. Availability * (1999) VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 7: Welcome To Wackyland (unrestored) * (2004) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc 3 (restored) * (2012) Blu-ray, DVD - Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc 1 (restored) * (2017) DVD - Porky Pig 101, Disc 3 (restored) Censorship * When this cartoon aired on Nickelodeon, the brief scene of the big-lipped Al Jolson duck saying, "Mammy, mammy," as he passes by Porky was cut.http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-p.aspx * Versions distributed by Guild Films/Sunset Productions in the 1950s cut the part where the Do-Do pops into frame onto the Warner Brothers shield and hits Porky with a rock from a slingshot. This cut was made because Warner Bros. did not want to be associated with television back in 1955, when this cartoon was sold for television distribution. Notes * This short subject is celebrated for its surreal humor, such as when Porky is chasing the bird, it disappears and suddenly the Warner Bros. shield emerges from the horizon's vanishing point, as it typically did at every cartoon's beginning, and complete with the standard stretched "boing" of the steel guitar. The Do-Do comes from behind the shield to bop Porky on the head and we see the shield immediately turn to return to the horizon with the bird riding it there (with, consequently, the boing sound played in reverse). ** Among the crazy characters Porky encounters is a creature with three heads arguing amongst themselves. From the haircuts on the three heads, it is clear that this is a parody of The Three Stooges. The character then faces the camera and leans into it in such a way that their round heads form a triangle, and a small character explains to the audience that, "He says his mother was scared by a pawnbroker's sign!" ** The long pan through Wackyland, as well as several other scenes, was remade in color by Clampett for inclusion in his 1943 short "Tin Pan Alley Cats". ** A Cinecolor remake of "Porky in Wackyland" was supervised by Friz Freleng in 1949. This remake was called "Dough for the Do-Do". * In 1994, by the members of the animation field, it was #8 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons. * This is the first to use the 1938-39 Looney Tunes intro, replacing the one used from "Rover's Rival" to "Wholly Smoke". * In 2000, it was selected to enter the "National Film Registry" by Congress. A print will be buried in a time capsule, waiting for others to view it a few hundred or thousand years later. * A clip from this cartoon was featured in the Animaniacs episode "Critical Condition". * A 1995 computer-colorized print is known to exist. (See Gallery) Gallery Snapshot - 58.png|Porky meeting Yoyo. Snapshot - 60.png Snapshot - 59.png Snapshot - 55.png Snapshot - 54.png Snapshot - 46.png Snapshot - 27.png Snapshot - 56.png Snapshot - 61.png Snapshot - 57.png 197137_10150127096448926_223597233925_6410225_4885713_n.jpgLobby Card References Further Reading * Beck, Jerry and Friedwald, Will (1989): Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Company. Category:Cartoons directed by Bob Clampett Category:Porky Pig Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:Black-and-white cartoons Category:1938 Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Post-1935 Black & White Looney Tunes Category:Cartoons animated by Norman McCabe Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger Category:Cartoons animated by Lu Guarnier Category:Cartoons animated by John Carey Category:Cartoons with layouts by Elmer Plummer Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Caricatures of real people Category:Cartoons in the Sunset Productions package